Book Riot Readers’ Top 50 Favorite Novels

A couple weeks ago, Rioter in Chief Jeff challenged you to name your favorite novel. He knew it wouldn’t be easy, especially because he refused to define favorite for you (“genre, era, quality: it’s up to you to decide what ‘favorite’ means”), so he gave you a little slack and the space to name not one but three favorites. 1,311 of you answered the call, nominating more than 1,200 different books. After many gloriously nerdy hours rolling around in the data, we’ve tallied up the Top 50. Check ’em out below, and look for a discussion post with more stats soon.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (126 votes)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

The Stand by Stephen King

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Persuasion by Jane Austen

The PIcture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

1984 by George Orwell

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Ulysses by James Joyce

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Dune by Frank Herbert

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (13 votes)

Did your favorite makes the finals?

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Samantha Irby and Robin Sloan talk about their favorite books in our newest podcast, Recommended. Download it for free from Apple Podcasts or Google Play.